Doctors and executions

from the February 24, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0224/p01s01-ussc.html

After two refuse to assist a lethal injection in California, debate over end-of-life ethics grows.

By Brad Knickerbocker Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

In California this week, two anesthesiologists refused to monitor the administering of a barbiturate designed to render unconscious convicted killer Michael Morales before he was to be killed with two other drugs.

The execution was called off - or, at least, postponed. Death-penalty opponents cheered. And the roiling debate over the ethics of medical professionals' involvement in the officially sanctioned ending of human life got a little hotter.

At issue: Should a healer help the executioner?

Beyond abortion (where the question of when life begins remains the major debating point), this includes executions carried out by the state and physician-assisted suicide now legal in Oregon and being considered in other states.

Similarly, medical ethics are involved in growing questions about military doctors taking part in the interrogation of prisoners and the force-feeding of those on a hunger strike.

In the eyes of most professional medical organizations, physicians have the ethical and professional obligation to do what they can to make people well, not to help kill them. The American Medical Association (AMA) code of ethics states, "A physician, as a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, should not be a participant in a legally authorized execution."

While most states now favor lethal drugs in capital punishment, courts increasingly are taking a skeptical view of a procedure that critics say violates the Constitution.

"The issue is whether the method the government has chosen to employ in our case constitutes cruel and unusual punishment," says Steve Northup, a Richmond, Va., attorney with a client on death row for gang murders. "There's a lot of scientific opinion out there to the effect that it causes a great deal of pain."

In the California case, a federal district judge ordered - for the first time - that licensed medical personnel administer the sedative.

In recent weeks, stays of execution have been granted in four cases, and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Florida case involving lethal injection.

The California Medical Association has proposed legislation that would end the role of physicians in capital punishment. In at least a dozen states, lawmakers are considering proposals that would allow doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical personnel to become, in effect, conscientious objectors regarding certain medical treatments.

In Oregon, doctors' involvement in end-of-life treatment focuses on the nation's only law allowing physician-assisted suicide. The state's 1997 "Death with Dignity Act" specifically prohibits "lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia." But doctors may prescribe lethal drugs for mentally competent adults who declare their intentions in writing and are diagnosed as terminally ill.

"It's an inherent conflict of interest," says William Toffler, professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. "It's an inherent degradation of the role of physicians."

That's a concern among some medical personnel in the armed forces, who worry about doctors in uniform handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"There is a slippery slope that needs to be addressed," says retired Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist who once headed one of the Army's regional medical commands.

Referring to the reportedly harsh treatment of detainees, General Xenakis told a panel last August, "I don't see that compatible with what we do as physicians.... There needs to be guidance from the Defense Department that says that we will not do that, irrespective of what the CIA and the special ops folks want to do."

In a report to the Army Inspector General last year, Maj. Gen. Lester Martinez-Lopez, M.D., recommended that military physicians and psychiatrists not aid interrogators, but that recommendation was rejected by the Pentagon.

More recently, military doctors have been involved in the force-feeding of detainees strapped to chairs. Military officials say the treatment remains relatively humane. And they point out that they, in fact, are preventing the possible loss of life of prisoners who are on a hunger strike.
Critics disagree.

"If you look at the obligations of the health professions and doctors in particular, UN standards, World Medical Association standards, AMA standards, the responsibility of the physician in war or peace is to improve peoples' health and not to inflict pain or harm," says Leonard Rubenstein, director of Physicians for Human Rights.

It's important for professionals to abide by their ethical standards, says Carl Coleman, a law professor specializing in health policy at Seton Hall Law School. "Part of the nature of a profession is the idea that it's at least to some extent self-regulating, that there are ideals that may go beyond the minimum standards the law requires."

• Maia Ridberg in New York contributed to this article.

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A gospel's rocky path from Egypt's desert to print

from the March 07, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0307/p01s02-lire.html

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

When the Gospel of Judas first surfaced in Geneva in 1983, scholars wondered if the mysterious text could trigger a reappraisal of history's most infamous traitor.

They never found out, however, because they couldn't afford the $3 million price tag on this second-century gnostic tale. Instead, the fragile pages vanished into private hands and set off on a 23-year, intercontinental journey through fist-pounding negotiations and even periods, reportedly, stuffed inside a Greek beauty's purse.

Now, at long last, the world is about to see the contents. The National Geographic Society last week reported it will publish a translation this spring, when "The Da Vinci Code" film is sure to rekindle interest in gnostic artifacts.

But the saga may be just beginning. That's because thieves apparently lifted the manuscript from the Egyptian desert, kicking off decades of illicit trafficking - and an ethical dilemma: Is it right to pay for and publish stolen documents for the purpose of spreading knowledge?

"The present owners can't sell it because they don't have, in international law, a legal title to something that was stolen," says James Robinson, one of the world's foremost experts on gnostic texts and author of a forthcoming book about the gospel, "The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and His Lost Gospel." "They're trying to sell the
sensationalism of the Gospel of Judas to get as much back as they can from whatever they paid for it."

National Geographic doesn't deny Dr. Robinson's allegation that the text left Egypt without that country's required authorization. Still, the organization stands by its decision.

"Everyone involved believes the materials should be given to Egypt" after scholars finish translating them, says spokeswoman Mary Jeanne Jacobsen. "National Geographic has done its due diligence, and is working with an international team of experts on this artifact to save the manuscript before it turns to dust and is lost forever."

But others worry that those who publish "hot" manuscripts create a tragic incentive. "When you publish material that's the result of recent looting ... you're adding to the value of other pieces similar to it," says Patty Gerstenblith, an expert in culture heritage law at DePaul University Law School in Chicago. That entices others to hunt for treasure, she says, with hopes that even something later branded contraband could still yield a nice windfall.

When an Arabic-speaking Egyptian and his Greek agent first offered the Gospel of Judas to buyers, they sold it as a package with other ancient texts for $3 million - well above the budget of Robinson and other scholars who tried to buy it.

So far, only a handful of inner-circle scholars are familiar with the contents of the Gospel of Judas. Despite the enticing name, experts say it was written at least a century after Judas Iscariot died, so it's apt to be most interesting to academics who concentrate on second-century gnosticism, Robinson says. Gnosticism is a belief system, deemed heretical by early Christian leaders, that preaches salvation via self-knowledge. Some of its followers lionized biblical figures of disrepute.

Though ancient writing was once a bargain compared to art, Professor Gerstenblith says, prices are climbing as a growing pool of middle-class collectors smells an opportunity to make a profit.
In this climate, libraries with potentially valuable pieces have in the past decade experienced what she terms a "rash" of thievery. Example: in August 2005, a map dealer got arrested for trying to sneak a pilfered page out of Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Other fields with similar quandaries are actively raising their ethical standards in the wake of demands by Italy and Peru this past year that pieces held in American institutions be returned. Last week, the American Association of Museum Directors issued guidelines saying museums shouldn't borrow or lend pieces known to have been stolen or unlawfully moved after 1970, when international standards took effect. But the American Institute of Archaeology faulted those directors for not going far enough in their guidelines to defend against future looting.

By contrast, the American Philological Association (APA), whose 3,000 members study ancient Greek and Roman texts, doesn't address acquisitions issues in its ethics policy, last updated in 1989.

If host nations "want no one to read [an ancient manuscript], that's wrong," says APA Executive Director Adam Blistein. "The world's entitled to know. You want to understand cultures as much as you can, and that means disclosure."

But some researchers say emphasis on disclosure is short-sighted. The dissemination of inadequately documented contents makes scholars increasingly vulnerable to forgeries and threatens to undermine archaeology, says Christopher Rollston, a Semitic studies expert at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn. "It is indubitable that collecting precipitates illicit pillaging of archaeological sites," Dr. Rollston says.

Custodians of rare books and epigraphy wonder if the high-profile case might be a sign of a dawning era of new acquisition standards in their field. One example: libraries with books tracing to Soviet or Nazi incursions increasingly must defend the legitimacy of their ownership.

"All of this is a series of attitudes [toward ownership] that are really very, very recent" and still developing in case law, says Daniel Traister, curator of the Annenberg Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania. "In [the art] field, we're used to it. In books and manuscripts, it's still somewhat new."

Collectors and scholars of written material are apt to keep resisting for a while, Gerstenblith says. The reason: their fields have traditionally emphasized the universal value of writings, whereas other archaeological finds are understood to be virtually meaningless when divorced from their place of origin. But as disciplines collaborate, she suggests, those with the most demanding ethical standards will influence the others.

"To say, 'I can study this [written material]. I don't care that it was looted' is an attitude that will become the dinosaur, and it will change," Gerstenblith says. "They're definitely behind where the archaeologists are, and that's going to take time" to close the gap.

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California's stem-cell initiative on hold

from the March 08, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0308/p03s03-stss.html

The state's first-in-the-nation move to support embryonic stem-cell research is stuck in court. Lawmakers are reviewing it, too.

By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

LOS ANGELES - Jeanne Loring is all dressed up in her lab coat and has - so to speak - nowhere to go.

As co-director of the stem-cell center for the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif., Ms. Loring has spent the past 15 months acquiring incubators, biosafety hoods, and microscopes to tackle what she and colleagues feel is the most compelling medical development in decades. They hope stem-cell research can provide cures for diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to heart disease.

But Loring and her coterie of 30 researchers - and similar operations across the state - are being stopped in their tracks. A 2004 citizens initiative, which catapulted California to the forefront of the nation's nascent embryonic stem-cell research industry by approving $3 billion in state funds, is stuck in court. Although arguments were heard last week and a superior-court judge may rule in coming days - regarding proper state oversight - the appellate process may go on for well over a year, legal analysts say.

State legislators are also looking to address public concerns with a host of new controls spelling out auditing procedures, possible conflicts of interest, royalty agreements, and protection for human egg donors.

"We have stopped holding our breath and are not turning blue anymore," says Loring, whose staff is taking pay cuts to keep grad students and postdoctoral clinicians on payroll until state money is freed for the project. The Burnham center has already won a grant of $1.5 million over three years from the state agency created by voters. But until the court case is settled, no such money can be dispersed.

The lab currently is supported by a combination of private money, foundation grants, and National Institutes of Health subsidies. But it is not permitted to use federal dollars, the largest portion of its funds, to work on new embryonic stem-cell lines. "We are hot on the trail of the biggest, most important development in science since the human genome project, but can only work in fits and starts," Loring says.

Known as the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, Proposition 71 was approved by 59 percent of California voters in November 2004. The measure allocated $300 million a year for a decade and created a state agency (called the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM), as well as a 29-member citizen oversight committee.

Controversy and criticism followed almost immediately - partly because of the scope and complexity of the idea, partly because no state had ever attempted such an idea separate from the federal government. The Bush administration prohibited federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, except on a limited number of existing embryonic stem-cell lines.

Other challenges included new guidelines regarding peer review, ethical safeguards, and patient protections. There were also problems forging ahead into a new realm of research that had not previously existed.

By most accounts, the CIRM has made significant progress on practically every front. It has filled out its governing board with some of the top scientists in the country and has held over five dozen public meetings to air concerns. Chief among those concerns have been ethical questions concerning the coercion of egg donors, the distribution of commercial benefits from newly discovered procedures, and disclosure about conflict of interest by board members.

"The CIRM has been subjected to an extraordinary amount of attention from public, press, and legislators and has responded with extraordinary openness through the past year," says R. Alta Charo, a law and bioethics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She and others say the effect has been to create policies exceeding federal standards in some areas.

But plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued last week that lack of direct management by the state and control of taxpayer funds violates the state constitution. The plaintiffs are a Christian conservative group, the California Family Council, and a tax group, the National Tax Limitation Foundation, which is being supported by the Life Legal Defense Foundation in Napa.

"We think the state shouldn't have to pay for all this research and can't sustain it," says Dana Cody, executive director of Life Legal Defense. "That lack of sufficient oversight is what we are concerned about."

Defendants told the judge last week that the measure does meet state law about oversight, and they hold that the plaintiffs' motivation is not legal, but moral. "If you look at who is behind the suits, you will find they are fundamentally opposed to the research and are doing anything they can to stop it," says CIRM counsel James Harrison.

Besides the lawsuit, California's stem-cell foray has other serious critics, even among supporters.

"Unfortunately as drafted, Prop. 71 [goes] a little light in the area of public accountability.... The final product didn't have the safeguards it should have," said state Sen. Debra Ortiz last Friday in two symposiums. Ms. Ortiz has supported the measure from the outset but continues to express a laundry list of concerns she feels were not understood by the public when it approved the measure. She has been involved with a bill to codify reforms that is expected to be heard in the Assembly Health Committee next month.

In the meantime, several universities have been moving ahead with private donations. But national observers say the halt in research is enabling other states to close the gap on California's once-giant lead in stem-cell research.

Says Ms. Charo: "There has been a race among the states to copy California, and this could help the locus of activity to move away."

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Endangered, but on road to recovery

from the March 02, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0302/p03s03-uspo.html

By Mark Clayton Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Is the Endangered Species Act really helping the piping plover, Delmarva Fox squirrel and more than 1,300 plants and animals on the protected list survive - or is it as critics argue - a costly failure?

One of the nation's landmark environmental laws, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the focus of congressional overhaul legislation. Reformers say the act wastes taxpayers' money, spawns costly lawsuits, and does little to help endangered species.

But a independent study released Tuesday suggests otherwise, showing populations of most listed species in the Northeast improved significantly under the ESA, the bald eagle most notably. Other species are stabilizing, the report said.

Concern about altering the ESA brought about the first-of-its-kind study by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), an environmental group based in Tucson, Ariz. It compiles federal, state, and university research to provide long-term population trend data for the large majority of endangered species in the Northeast.

At least 38 of 41 endangered species in the Northeast have increased in number or maintained stable populations since being listed, the report says. About 7 percent of species are in decline. No species has become extinct since being listed. The analysis included all species for which there were at least six years of data and a recovery timeline, comprising 73 percent of those listed.

"We find that the Endangered Species Act has been remarkably successful in the region," said the CBD report.

In particular, the bald eagle soared from 417 pairs in 1963 to 7,230 by 2003. Populations of the American peregrine falcon, the Atlantic piping plover, the humpback whale, the Puritan tiger beetle, and the American Hart's-tounge fern also increased.

"It often takes many years on the [ESA] list before some populations even begin to rebound," says Peter Galvin, CBD conservation director. "These species didn't become endangered overnight, and people shouldn't expect them to recover overnight."

That's unlikely to satisfy those in Congress who say the act is a boondoggle. Less than 1 percent of the endangered species put on the list since 1973 have recovered enough to be taken off, critics say.

Leading the way to change the ESA is Rep. Richard Pombo (R) of California, chairman of the House Resources Committee. He sponsored ESA overhaul legislation that passed the House last fall. Similar ESA legislation could surface in the Senate as soon as this month, observers say.

Government data "makes it clear the vast majority of these species have not improved," said Mr. Pombo in a statement last year. Just 10 species have recovered enough to be removed from the list since the act was passed in 1973, with 60 percent of species "uncertain" or "declining," according to US Fish and Wildlife Service reports.

But that biennial report to Congress charts "declines" and other species' status on a two-year time frame, during which plant populations can fluctuate dramatically, Mr. Galvin says, citing a need for long-term information.

But Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Pombo's committee, says those "declines" are accurate. The CBD report, he says, uses US Fish and Wildlife Service data that are being revised, and so are "unreliable and not meaningful."

Mr. Kennedy agrees that collecting long-term species population data is a good idea - and that Pombo's overhaul does this. For its part, the CBD study shows the average recovery plan for Northeast species is 42 years, Galvin says.

For example, a little pond turtle called the northern red-bellied Cooter found in southern Massachusetts was down to 300 in 1985 and is now at 3,000. Though the cooter has been on the list for 20 years, the first hatchlings have been breeding for only five. A cooter begins to breed at age 14.

"Because of the systems we've worked out we know it won't disappear again," says Tom French of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. "Whether it will ever thrive again we don't know.... We're still working for that long-term goal." The cost to taxpayers to save the cooter is about $5,000 to $15,000 a year.

Also on the list is the slow-reproducing shortnose sturgeon on the Hudson River. It increased from 12,669 spawning fish in 1979 to 56,708 by 1996. Meanwhile, the Atlantic piping plover, a shore bird increased from 550 pairs in 1986 to 1,423 by 2004. Each has a long way to go, but they've made strides, Galvin says.

"The data in this report does show that many endangered species are making significant progress toward recovery," says Michael Bean, chair of the wildlife program for Environmental Defense, a Washington environmental group. "It refutes the claim that the act has failed because there are not more species delisted. This shows a lot are making progress. They're not there yet, but they're headed in the right direction."

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'Green' chemists swap oil for renewable alternatives

from the March 06, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0306/p13s02-sten.html

By Karoun DemirJian Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Look around you. What do you see? A computer screen, the print on this page, a pen, your shirt. Chances are there's petroleum in all of it. Petroleum-based substances are in everything from lipstick to laundry detergents, clothes to computers to chocolate bars - even fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. Petroleum for nonfuel use made up just over 5 percent of total oil consumption in the United States last year, according to the Department of Energy.

Five percent may not seem like a lot, but it's still 1 million barrels a day, more or less. That's enough to demand the attention of a new generation of industry and academic scientists who are working to find natural, nontoxic alternatives to petroleum for consumer products. They have dubbed their field "green chemistry."

"The way we've always dealt with environmental issues in the past is that we take products and processes, and if there's problems, then we try to clean it up afterwards," says Paul Anastas, a former EPA executive and director of the Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C. "Green chemistry tries to do it from the design stage."

Those designs try to replace oil-derived ingredients with substitutes made from plant material such as corn, potatoes, biomass, or flower and vegetable oils.

"The industry wants drop-in technologies," says John Warner, director of America's only doctoral program in green chemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. "The product has to be something that in every way looks and feels the same - so that's the challenge."

The size of that challenge depends on the petroleum-related product to be duplicated.
In the case of paints, detergents, and personal care products like lotion and shampoo, the inspiration for green science has been around for a while. "Many years ago, paints were produced from vegetable and mineral resources," says Scott Egide, General Manager for AURO USA, which makes paints using linseed and flaxseed oils.

Oil-based chemicals began to appear in household cleaning products around World War II, says Martin Wolf, director of product and environmental technology for Seventh Generation, which makes petroleum-free detergents. "Animal fats and plant oils were the basis of soaps through the first part of the 20th century," he says. "Surfactants [soaps and detergents] made from petroleum later were just designed to mimic nature."

Substituting for the petroleum used in plastics, however, is a relatively new science. To make conventional plastics, oil must be broken down into constituent monomers, which are then reconstituted into polymer chains (plastics). Scientists have now mimicked this process with corn starches, creating a new polymer called polylactic acid (PLA).Adding pineapple reinforcers
While the idea of plant-based polymers goes all the way back to the 1930s and '40s, significant steps toward the development and production of PLA did not occur until the 1990s. "This is the product of literally decades of research," says Mr. Anastas.

Research continues to make natural plastic more durable and impermeable - necessary to make it competitive.

At Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., chemistry professor Geoffrey Coates and researchers from the school's Consortium on Green Polymers combine soybean-based proteins with natural fibers, like those found in pineapple, to make the plastics stronger.

In Professor Warner's lab in Lowell, Mass., researchers treat corn-based polymers with ultraviolet light. That twists and contorts the polymers, making them stronger and more durable.

The natural plastic can be intentionally broken down with the help of bacteria that turn the complex polymers back into plant material - which can then be reconstituted into natural plastic again.

Purifying and breaking down used petroleum-based plastics is costly. Instead, plastic recycling usually consists of taking a high-end product and producing a low-end one. "I want to be able to take a laptop computer and make another laptop computer, not a speed bump," Warner says.
"The dream with our technology is to be able, at low cost, to recover the polymer in its originally useful form."

Optimal use of energy is a paramount concern.Energy-efficiency is key
"You have to look at the energy balance," Professor Coates says. "It's not just 'Did the stuff come from nature?' It's 'Well, if it came from nature, is it worth it?' If it takes a lot of energy, you might be better off just converting your fossil fuels" into plastic.

Energy efficiency also keeps costs low. "Folks in industry like green chemistry, because it helps them meet profit goals and economic competitiveness goals," Anastas says. "Nonhazardous nontoxic chemicals are going to be cheaper to manufacture, and add value to the industry."
Large-scale production of biorenewable plastics is already under way.

NatureWorks LLC, a subsidiary of food and agriculture giant Cargill, sells corn-based plastic to manufacturers of plastic containers, cutlery, and packaging. Chemical company Dupont's biorenewable Sorona plastic can substitute for polyester and other synthetic fabrics.

And last year, Wal-Mart announced its intention to use only biorenewable materials for its plastic packaging.

"To replace a commodity material, you have to get those economies of scale," says Ann Tucker of NatureWorks. Her company has been able to lower the price of its biorenewable packaging plastic from more than $1 a pound to about 63 cents. While the price of the equivalent petroleum-based plastic packaging currently can cost as little as 40 cents per pound, NatureWork's pricing is extremely competitive, says Frank Esposito of PlasticsNews. That's because petroleum-based plastics bear the cost of rising oil prices. Large orders, like those anticipated from Wal-Mart, should lower the cost of biorenewable plastic still further, he says.

Support crosses party lines

Support is also trickling in from the political sector, as various state governors (including those of Maine, just last week, and New York earlier this year) mandate the development and use of nontoxic chemicals.

Interest in Washington cuts across party lines.

"The first perception is always that green chemists are tree- hugging hippies, until they realize that this is hard core beakers-and-flasks chemistry," Anastas says.

The last significant challenge, perhaps, is acceptance by an increasingly oil-conscious America.
"Using petroleum in materials is not as bad as burning it," Anastas says. "But we never want to use a finite resource at a greater pace than we can replace it."

Clothing: Synthetic clothes are essentially plastic, which, like soda bottles and storage bins, are made from petroleum-based polymers. That includes such fibers as polyester and nylons, synthetic substitutes for shoe leather, hard plastic buttons, and plastic zippers. Most clothing dyes are oil-based as well.

Detergents: The surfactants that enable many modern soaps and detergents to break up greasy stains are derived from petrochemicals.

Chocolate: Many chocolates maintain their appetizing look with the help of paraffin, an oil-based wax also used in candles. The paraffin helps molded chocolate hold its shape, and makes it look shiny. Food-grade paraffin is harmless, but nondigestible.

Soda bottles and other plastics: The polymers that form the building blocks of plastics are made from reconstituted monomers, traditionally derived from petroleum and natural-gas liquids.

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Crackdown on animal-rights activists

from the March 07, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0307/p03s01-usju.html

New Jersey guilty verdict puts focus on extremists' tactics that Congress is trying to curb.

By Brad Knickerbocker Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Animal-rights activists around the country - at least the most extreme - are becoming increasingly militant. And law enforcement officials and lawmakers are stepping up efforts to combat those who break the law.

These interconnected trends came to a head in New Jersey last week when an animal rights group and six of its members were convicted of inciting violence in their campaign to shut down a company that uses animals to test drugs and other consumer products.

The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), claims its actions constitute free speech. But federal prosecutors and the jury in a Trenton, N.J., courtroom called it harassment, stalking, and conspiracy - the first such conviction under the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest of its kind in the world, is based in Britain and New Jersey.

Antivivisectionists and other animal-rights proponents have been organized in the US since at least the mid-19th century. But recently, their most extreme members have become more aggressive.

Much of the focus for animal-rights supporters is on companies that produce animal products (mainly meat and fur). In their sights, too, are universities, hospitals, and other institutions that kill animals for medical research or product development. And they have been targeting anyone who does business with animal testers - financial institutions, contractors, and service providers, some with only a tenuous connection.

Activists' tactics include vandalism, personal warnings by e-mail and phone message, and other threats directed at family members - what's called "tertiary targeting."

"There really isn't a week that goes by that I don't hear about an incident," says Jacquie Calnan, president of Americans for Medical Progress in Alexandria, Va., which represents universities, pharmaceutical and biomedical corporations, and research organizations.

Most of those engaged in medical science say animal testing is crucial to find cures for disease and new devices meant to keep people healthy.

"Virtually every human being in the country has benefited from animal research," says John Young, a lab animal veterinarian and director of comparative medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

For example, recent research (including the human genome project) established that mice and humans are virtually identical in their genetic makeup. Specially bred mice are used to investigate ways to treat human diseases.

US research facilities use more than 1 million animals every year: dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, monkeys, sheep, and other farm animals. Add in mice and rats (more than 90 percent of all lab animals), and the total jumps to nearly 30 million, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

While most such animals eventually are killed, supporters of such research say avoiding animal suffering is a major consideration in their work.

"I don't know of a scientist or veterinarian who is not committed to the welfare of the animals," says Dr. Young.

Members of SHAC, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), strongly disagree. In some cases, they've infiltrated research labs to produce photos and videos that show otherwise.

"It's clear that if you look at the science we have much better ways of testing drugs to see whether they're going to be toxic or helpful in human beings," says Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon in Canoga Park, Calif.

"Unfortunately ... the FDA [US Food and Drug Administration] is still requiring animal testing, but they're way behind the science on this issue," says Dr. Vlasak, who's also a spokesman for radical animal rights activists that often announce their "direct actions" anonymously. "The scientific alternatives are out there."

That's a minority view in the medical community, and it is one that many lawmakers oppose.
Members of the US House and Senate are sponsoring the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act." It would toughen the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act by imposing penalties for veiled threats to individuals and families, economic disruption or damage, and "tertiary targeting."

Along with the recent indictment of ALF activists charged with arson and other crimes in Oregon and other parts of the West, the convictions in New Jersey are a setback for extremist animal-rights activists.

Still, the crackdown by the FBI and other police agencies has not slowed activists' efforts. One anonymous group just launched a website listing the home addresses of 2,000 employees from 30 companies doing business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

"From CEOs to lowly sales reps, from Alabama to Hawaii, we've sniffed them out," activists are told. "Visit them often, and make the message clear: when you contract with HLS... you get us!"

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Economist.com Cities Guide: Tokyo Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Tokyo or busk

The silent underground walkways of the Tokyo Metro could soon reverberate with the sounds of the capital’s first licensed street musicians. In a surprise break with the Tokyo Metro’s conservative approach to busking, delegates travelled to London in early March to liaise with their counterparts from London Underground and explore the possibility of legalisation. The Japanese authorities say they are eager to recreate the success of the three-year-old British scheme, in which 300 musicians have been granted licences to play at 42 designated “pitches” throughout stations on the London network.

But there are real differences between the two cities. British buskers have been around for decades and were locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with the London Underground authorities until their position was formalised. Tokyo has never had buskers, and the Metro will first have to hold auditions for a new crop of subterranean stars.

Six days a week

With the new academic year due to start on April 3rd, some state schools in and around Tokyo are preparing to recommence lessons on Saturdays. The Japanese tradition of a six-day school week was controversially outlawed in 2002, to mitigate the heavy educational burden on Japanese schoolchildren. But this has frustrated teachers at Tokyo’s finer state schools, who say their students are falling behind those at private institutions, where the ban has no bearing.

They argue that this growing disparity is especially visible during the white-hot competitiveness of university entrance exams. So teachers at the Omiya High School in Saitana Prefecture will offer Saturday lessons, exploiting a legal loophole by claiming these classes are for “special circumstances”. As many as ten schools in Tokyo and Saitama say they expect to get away with the same practice.

Blowing a fuse

Hundreds of second-hand shops across the capital are angry about a new law that prohibits reselling electrical goods produced before 2001. Opponents of the Electrical Appliance and Material Law, which takes effect on April 1st, say it will destroy Tokyo’s most vibrant trade and cramp the city’s music scene. The ban, introduced with safety in mind, will affect everything from vintage electric guitars in Jimbocho to retro video-game consoles in Akihabara.

For a city filled with obsessive collectors and gadget aficionados, the law threatens to drive their hobby underground. It will certainly push up the prices of old electronic gems. The only way around the new legislation is for shopkeepers to submit resale items for official government approval, at a cost of between $30 and $300 per item. Many blame the Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry for the panic, as it has failed to explain the ramifications of the measure.

Capital increase

Tokyo has among the lowest birth rates in the country, new figures have shown. The capital last year experienced its first natural population decrease since 1955, the first year the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began keeping record. If immigrants to the city are discounted, the number of Tokyoites shrank by 687 people last year, an indication that couples in the city are reluctant to have children.

Not that this means the city is going to feel any less crowded. The population of Tokyo grew for the tenth straight year in 2005, owing to an influx of immigrants from elsewhere in Japan and overseas. Nearly 73,000 people came to Tokyo last year, raising the population of the capital to nearly 8.5m and the number of registered foreigners to nearly 365,000, an all-time record. Almost two-thirds of immigrants hailed from China and South Korea.

Red handed

Tokyo’s more radical past returned to the spotlight with the sentencing in February of Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorist group. Once considered one of the most dangerous women on earth, she helped the group mastermind a series of deadly bombings and hijackings during the 1970s and early 1980s. Miss Shigenobu earned a 20-year prison sentence for her role in the 1974 siege of the French Embassy in the Hague. A former employee of a soy-sauce company, she remained defiant throughout her trial and handed her lawyer a haiku to read outside the Tokyo District Court that concluded “strong will shall keep spreading”.

Police arrested Miss Shigenobu in 2001, when she secretly returned to Japan after decades in the Middle East—most believe Lebanon—where she underwent paramilitary training and set up the JRA. The story of Miss Shigenobu’s transformation from meek office worker to socialist firebrand hark back to a more politically engaged Tokyo. She described being seduced by student street protests and activism while walking back from work one afternoon. Her rage with the Japanese system, the Imperial family and various alleged injustices fermented into something violent after a stint in the Middle East.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Masterpieces from the Prado

March 25th-June 30th 2006

This much-anticipated show is sure to be one of the biggest blockbusters in Japan in 2006. For an exhibition subtitled “From Titian to Goya”, Madrid’s Prado Museum has lent over 80 works from its permanent collection. Highlights include paintings from Titian (including “Venus”), Velasquez, Goya, El Greco (pictured), Murillo and Rubens. Tokyo hosted a Prado show four years ago that attracted half a million visitors, so expect crowds. Try to come on a weekday or early on Saturdays to view the works with minimal jostling.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno Park 8-36, Taito-Ku. Tel: +81 (0)3-3823-6921. Take the Yamanote Line to Ueno. Open: Tues-Sun 9am-5pm. See the exhibit's website.

More from the Tokyo cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Dubai Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Unsafe harbours

The Dubai government may rethink its international investment strategy after the hostile reaction of American politicians towards two America-based private-equity deals worth $8 billion. Specifically, American congressmen were up in arms over the purchase of P&O, a British port operator, by DP World, a Dubai-owned firm—a $6.8 billion move that would have put six important American ports in the hands of DP World. The American complaints were ostensibly about national security, as two of the September 11th hijackers were from the United Arab Emirates and the attacks were partly financed by funds that went through Dubai banks. Dubai has also been cited in a number of investigations as a hub for illegal nuclear arms sales. The stand-off over the ports ended on March 9th, when DP World announced it would sell its American port operations.

The fuss surprised many business leaders in Dubai who thought the deal was all but concluded. UAE officials argue that they have been an active ally of America in the war on terror—a claim endorsed by George Bush. Yet the backlash in America was a slap in the face for the city, which is trying to invest in building world-class businesses before the oil runs out in about ten years. The effect has been to encourage Dubai businessmen to seek opportunities in Europe and Asia rather than in America, to avoid what they see as anti-Arab sentiment.

A ban on poppers

As the emirate grows more popular among celebrities, Dubai has launched an official crackdown on paparazzi photographers. It follows the snapping on local beaches of high-profile English footballers, such as Chelsea's Frank Lampard and John Terry, and the sale of these photographs to British tabloids. David Beckham so far has escaped attention, but this is expected to change when he moves into his villa in Dubai later this year. Dubai police say that under local law it is illegal to take pictures of anyone—famous or not—without their consent. While the law has largely been ignored in the past, in early March police officials announced plans to enforce it strictly, threatening prison sentences for offenders.

Winners, not gamblers

Residents in Dubai can now win up to Dh1m ($272,000) a week as part of a prize draw launched by a state-backed Dubai firm, which officials insist is not gambling. This is no small issue, as gambling is forbidden under sharia law. Contenders get a chance at the pot by entering a government-sponsored saving scheme and buying bonds from the National Bonds Corp, which they can hold for life. The minimum purchase is Dh100 and the numbered bonds are entered into a weekly draw to win cash prizes.

Anxious to play down any suggestion of gambling, officials had the scheme rubber-stamped by a senior sharia scholar. But in case any confusion lingers, local Dubai media were banned from using the word “lottery” in their coverage.

Rain stopped play

Hundreds of residents in swanky new Dubai homes, some in the exclusive and expensive Emirates Hills district, were outraged when they were flooded during a recent thunderstorm. Just a few centimetres of rain fell in late February, but that was enough to make some streets impassable, and many villas were ankle- or knee-deep in water. Critics said the incident has underlined the inconsistent quality of building in Dubai, with contractors and developers cutting corners on drainage to save costs. Generally this does not become a problem because of Dubai's arid climate, but freak storms—which occur once every two years or so—can catch them out.

This is not the first time shoddy workmanship has come to light in Dubai’s building boom. Officials in Dubai’s government are now concerned that the city will earn a reputation for poor quality that could undermine its real-estate development, and critics have called for a new regulatory body within the construction industry.

Anglo-Saxon attitudes

Saxon, a band of ageing British rockers, was forced to cancel a concert in Dubai after some Muslims criticised lyrics of the song “Crusader” as anti-Islamic. At issue are the lines, “For Christendom's sake, we'll take our revenge/On the pagan from out of the East” and “The Saracen heathen will soon taste our steel”. The group was due to perform at Dubai's Desert Rock festival in mid-March. But Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, a government body, withdrew the band's licence to perform just days before the show amid an angry backlash in some Arab media. Saxon defended their lyrics in a statement: “We are not and never have been a racist band...The song is a snapshot of an event in history, the lyrics are intended to give a flavour of what it must have been like in the army at the time.”

Catch if you can

March 2006

Figure/Ground: 4 women and their surroundings

Until April 17th 2006

Incongruously located in Dubai’s industrial district is the Third Line, a warehouse art gallery that displays contemporary Middle Eastern art. This show brings together the paintings of Mona Marzouk and Roá Aly, with the photography of Rana El Nemr and Montreal-based Arwa Aboun—three of the artists are from Egypt and the fourth is from Tunisia/Libya. Together these artists explore the female experience, whether through glossy snapshot portraits of people on Cairo’s subway system, or an effervescent film of women in bubblegum-pink hijab.

The Third Line, Al Quoz 3, Dubai. Tel: +971 (0)4 341 1367. See the gallery's website.

More from the Dubai cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Atlanta Briefing - March 2006

News this month

All in the family

In 1984 a federal judge broke AT&T’s monopoly on the phone industry, and the company duly split into regional phone carriers dubbed “Baby Bells”. Now AT&T, which last year merged with SBC Communications, is planning a reunion. In a surprise announcement on March 5th, AT&T said that it would acquire Atlanta-based BellSouth, one of the “Baby Bells”, for $67 billion. AT&T and BellSouth jointly own Cingular Wireless, a mobile-phone service, and the merger will bring all three companies under one owner. The resulting telecoms company will be America’s largest, with a market capitalisation of $170 billion, more than 250,000 employees and 70m local phone subscribers. The move is seen as a response to a market that has become increasingly competitive as customers begin to get phone service via the internet.

The deal has locals worried. Though AT&T insists that the company will maintain a strong presence in Atlanta, some 10,000 jobs in the area could be cut. Moreover, BellSouth has a strong reputation as a local corporate philanthropist, which few expect the new company to sustain. BellSouth is the third major Atlanta-based company in less than six months to be acquired by a firm headquartered outside the city. In November Koch Industries, based in Kansas, acquired Georgia-Pacific, a paper-goods company; and Cisco Systems, based in California, bought Scientific-Atlanta, a maker of broadband cable equipment.

Crossing lines

While federal politicians debate immigration laws, Georgia's state legislators are weighing their own reforms. Chip Rogers, a Republican senator from Woodstock, north-west of Atlanta, has proposed a sweeping immigration bill, the first to be debated on the floor of Georgia's state legislature. Mr Rogers’s proposal would deny state benefits to illegal immigrants and require employers to document an employee’s citizenship before they could claim the salary on their state income tax.

Several groups, including the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), are opposing the bill on the grounds that immigration reform is a federal prerogative. But pundits expect Mr Rogers’s bill to be backed by the Republican-controlled legislature in an election year. A recent poll found that 82% of Georgians want their politicians to address immigration problems.

The wheels come off

After a year of intense lobbying, Atlanta learned on March 6th that it had lost its bid to host NASCAR's first Hall of Fame, a new building to celebrate car racing. Charlotte, North Carolina, was chosen for the hall instead, largely because 90% of NASCAR teams, and therefore many top drivers, are not far from the city. This is despite Atlanta's last-ditch effort to promote its bid with a promise to support the hall with city bonds and grant a tax break that would have cut construction costs by $5.2m.

City leaders had hoped that a $102m NASCAR Hall of Fame would be a boon to tourism and development downtown, building on the success of the new Georgia Aquarium. Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown business group that had championed the bid, has not yet revealed its plans for the earmarked site.

The end of an era

Flanked by hundreds of cheering Delta Air Lines employees, the “Spirit of Delta”, a Boeing 767 jet, made its final landing on March 3rd at Atlanta’s airport, where Delta is based. The plane is famous for being purchased in 1982 with $30m of voluntary contributions from employees. Three flight attendants (or “stewardesses”, as they were then known) launched the drive after Delta was criticised for giving its employees a raise when it had just posted its first annual loss in 36 years.

The celebrants at Atlanta’s airport were quick to say that Delta, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last September, would be hard-pressed to inspire such a gesture from its workers now. The Air Line Pilots Association, Delta’s pilots union, agreed to 32% pay cuts in 2004 to help the airline stave off bankruptcy, and is resisting management's effort to make more cuts of $325m. The dispute went to arbitration on March 13th, a first for a labour contract in a bankruptcy-protected company. A plan to pay departing Delta executives up to $14m has done little to ease animosity. The “Spirit of Delta”, a reminder of happier days, will spend its retirement in the company museum.

Slow ride

A group of Georgia State University students has won national attention thanks to a five-minute film, “55: A Meditation on the Speed Limit”. The students filmed each other driving the legal speed limit, 55mph, on Atlanta’s Interstate 285, where traffic frequently averages 70mph. The resulting road rage and wall of traffic earned the film not only a student-film festival’s “Best Comedy” award, but also wider attention thanks to its availability on the internet. The filmmakers even appeared on National Public Radio and some television talk shows.

Although some irate commuters have suggested jailing the speed-limit abiders, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation says the students did not block emergency vehicles and therefore did nothing wrong.

Catch if you can

March 2006

“Jelly’s Last Jam”

March 15th-April 9th 2006

This musical tells the life story of Jelly Roll Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz. It won three Tony Awards in 1992 on the strength of George C. Wolfe’s book (he also directed the first run) and Morton’s tunes. The musical has never before travelled to Atlanta. It now appears with Kent Gash, the Alliance Theatre’s associate artistic director, serving as director and co-choreographer.

Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St. Tel: +1 (404) 733-5000. Tickets: $25–45. For more information, see the theatre’s website.

More from the Atlanta cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Out in front

There was good news for Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, in early March, when a poll showed him leading the field in the run-up to elections in September. The poll—conducted by Emnid, a research institute, two local radio stations and the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper—gave Mr Wowereit a rating of 1.2 on a scale from minus-five (least popular) to plus-five (most popular). The Social Democratic mayor's main challenger is Friedbert Pflüger, from the centre-right Christian Democratic party. Mr Pflüger scored one point behind Mr Wowereit on the popularity scale, and had a 56% recognition factor with voters, compared with the mayor’s 99%.

The festive Mr Wowereit—“Wowi” to Berliners—has served as the city-state's mayor since 2001. During his election campaign he defied mudslingers by proudly declaring his homosexuality, to great effect in liberal-minded Berlin. His words at the time, “ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so,” or “I am gay and that is a good thing,” have since become famous in Germany as a statement of openness and self-acceptance.

Making a mark

Berlin’s public-transport authority, the BVG, is urging judges to take a harder line against perpetrators of graffiti and vandalism on trains and buses. According to the BVG, in 2004 only 8% of the 1,587 cases brought to court led to sentencing, dropping from 11.6% in 2003 and 16.9% in 2002; in 2005 only 18.8% of arrests even resulted in trials at all. The BVG believes that this laxity is encouraging vandalism.

Berlin is renowned in Germany for its graffiti, which some see as a form of art and a sign of the city’s vibrant youth culture. But for the city government, graffiti remains a blight, damaging property at an estimated annual cost of €7m-8m ($8.3m-9.5m). Officials have waged numerous campaigns against vandalism, including an ambitious effort last spring involving nocturnal helicopter missions with infra-red cameras. The experiment was soon stopped, however, when Berliners complained about its noise and great expense.

Looking sharp

The spectre of neo-Nazism emerged in Berlin in late February, when a 24-year-old man was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence for wearing a banned logo from a company popular among right-wing extremists. Around 30 similar cases have been registered in Berlin this year. The logo, which is based on a symbol from the ancient Nordic alphabet, was taken off the market at the beginning of 2005 after Germany's courts ruled that it too closely resembled the swastika, the symbol of the Nazi SS.

Thor Steiner, the clothing company in question (now using a different logo) advertises its garb as “patriotic clothing with Nordic attitude”. The company has been accused by left-wing organisations of financially supporting neo-Nazi groups, a charge it denies. The logo's legality has become ambiguous since last year's court ruling: although the logo remains illegal in Berlin, the neighbouring state of Brandenburg has lifted the ban.

Lagging behind

While Germany's economic confidence seems to be slowly improving—exports are booming and modest growth is predicted for 2006—the mood in Berlin remains rather glum. A recent survey by Forsa, a research group, showed that only 11% of Berliners felt that their personal financial situation would improve over the next six months, compared with 40% who predicted a deterioration. Almost half thought there would be no change. When asked whether they had become richer or poorer over the past six months, 9% said their finances had improved, whereas 47% said things had gotten worse.

Commentators put the pessimism down to Berlin's stubbornly high unemployment rate, which stood at around 18% in January. The local chamber of commerce has added to the gloom: it forecasts just under 1% growth for Berlin, compared to around 2% for Germany as a whole.

Mean streets

Random violence on the streets of Berlin is worrying the city-state's police. On the evening of March 4th a gang of around 15 youths staged three separate attacks on passers-by in the up-and-coming eastern neighbourhood of Friedrichshain. The same night three 17-year-olds beat up other teenagers in Marzahn, an eastern suburb.

It seems that these attacks and others like it were essentially committed at whim, without usual spurs such as drunkenness, mugging or political confrontation between right-wing and left-wing extremists. Still, figures show overall crime in Berlin is in decline. According to police statistics released on March 6th, the number of convicted crimes in 2005 dropped to their lowest level in 13 years, down 5.7% from 2004.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Isabelle Huppert: Woman Of Many Faces

March 11th-April 16th 2006

This exhibition pays homage to Isabelle Huppert, an iconic French film actress, on the heels of the Berlin film festival's enthusiastic reaction to her performance in “L’Ivresse du pouvoir”, a thriller directed by Claude Chabrol. Her many different faces are captured by 74 photographers, including Jürgen Teller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Nan Goldin and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

C/O Berlin, Linienstrasse 144, 10115 Berlin-Mitte. Tel: +49 (0)30 2809 1925. Open: Wed-Sun 11am-7pm. See the gallery's website.

More from the Berlin cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: New York Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Ports in a political storm

The political stand-off over the management of American ports finally came to an end on March 9th, when Dubai Ports World (DP World) announced it would transfer its American ports to a “United States entity”. While the details of this transfer remain unclear, the move ends weeks of protests against the takeover by DP World of six American ports through the acquisition of P&O, a British maritime firm. The kerfuffle began on February 13th when DP World, a ports operator owned by the government of Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), paid $6.8 billion for P&O. It then acquired ports in Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, New Jersey and New York.

The takeover of these ports had unleashed a flurry of complaints from American politicians, ostensibly over national security. Two of the September 11th hijackers were from the UAE and the attacks were partly financed by funds that went through Dubai banks. Both of New York's senators had joined the melee: Hillary Clinton planned to introduce legislation to prohibit the sale of port operations to foreign governments; and Chuck Schumer proposed emergency legislation to block the deal. But George Bush has been steadfast in his support of the takeover, arguing that the UAE is an ally. He has promised to veto any bill that blocks or delays the deal. DP World’s announcement seems to have saved Mr Bush from what could have been an embarrassing face-off with Congress.

Body snatchers

The owner of a biomedical tissue supply company has been indicted, along with three other men, on charges of body stealing, fraud, forgery and corruption. At issue is a scheme that allegedly involved carving up more than 1,000 corpses at funeral parlours and selling the parts for profit. Skin was sold for cosmetic surgery and burn victims, bone for orthopaedic uses and dental implants, and cardiac valves for patients with heart problems. Such parts can be processed for profit, unlike lungs, hearts and kidneys, which are handled by non-profit groups.

Michael Mastromarino, owner of the supply company, and Joseph Nicelli, an embalmer and former Brooklyn funeral-parlour owner, allegedly forged death certificates and donor consent forms. In the case of Alistair Cooke, a BBC broadcaster who was 95 years old when he died from cancer in March 2004, fake documents said he died at 85 from a heart attack. Surgical gloves and PVC pipes were stuffed into the corpses to disguise the thefts from unsuspecting families. Charles Hynes, Brooklyn’s District Attorney, revealed that the ring made $4.6m over four years, plundering corpses from more than 30 funeral parlours in New York and nearby states. Funeral-parlour directors were paid $1,000 per corpse by the alleged body-snatchers, and some 12,000 people may have received these parts. On the open market, one body can bring in as much as $250,000 for harvesting and transplant companies, according to Mr Hynes. The Food and Drug Administration now worries that these transplants were not properly screened, and recipients may have been exposed to viruses such as HIV and hepatitis.

Beginning again

Construction of the World Trade Centre Memorial is finally due to begin in March. Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, said the total cost, which would include related projects such as a visitor’s centre, would be $1 billion: double the initial estimate. The memorial is planned to open on September 11th 2009.

Mr Bloomberg and Chuck Schumer, a New York senator, have publicly disputed plans for the site’s future. The mayor recently proposed the area should include more residential space. Mr Schumer, however, says the city should promote commercial building by giving the site’s developer $1.8 billion in Liberty Bonds, a tax-free financing scheme. He also proposed that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey should move into the Freedom Tower, the main new skyscraper. The rebuilding is largely controlled by George Pataki, New York's governor, and the Port Authority, which owns the site. Mr Pataki would like work to start on the tower in April 2006.

The perils of percussions

Vado Diomande, a local drum-maker, has been hospitalised with a case of inhaled anthrax. City officials say he may have contracted anthrax from the raw animal hides he imports from the Côte d'Ivoire. Seven other people were given antibiotics as a precautionary measure, but Mr Bloomberg has been quick to reassure New Yorkers that there was no risk of any wider danger and that the infection appeared to be accidental, rather than the result of terrorism. The city health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, has confirmed that this incident involved a naturally occurring anthrax, though he could not verify that untreated hides were the source. Rates for human cases of anthrax-poisoning are high in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation, though some drum-makers are sceptical that untreated hides could carry the disease.

Health investigators have quarantined five buildings in the city. They found low levels of anthrax—which occurs naturally in soil and grazing animals—at the victim’s apartment in the West Village as well as in his workshop in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of DUMBO. Authorities plan to disinfect both buildings and have offered to scour the apartments of Mr Diomande's neighbours as well.

Pedal power

In a long-running battle between the city and a group of committed cyclists, Michael Stallman, a state supreme court judge, ruled in favour of the latter. Critical Mass, a protest collective, gathers on the last Friday of every month to cycle in Manhattan in support of cyclists’ rights, among other political issues. During the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, police arrested over 260 participants in a Critical Mass gathering for parading without a permit and “disorderly conduct”. Traffic officials argue that the cyclists have little respect for traffic laws and road safety, and have regularly arrested participants. But Judge Stallman rejected the city's lawsuit to halt the gatherings, ruling that the group did not meet the city's definition of “a parade or procession” and so they do not need a permit. He argued that criminalising the ride could flood the courts with petulant cyclists, and urged the two sides to reconcile. The city plans to appeal the decision.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Mark Morris Dance Group

Until March 25th 2006

In 1984 the New Yorker ran a picture of a young choreographer with disarming eyes and a mop of brown ringlets. “Mark Morris Comes to Town”, the magazine declared, anointing the new darling of New York’s dance scene. Now 49 years old, Mr Morris is celebrating his company’s 25th anniversary, with more than 125 dances under his expanding belt. This month the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) hosts a slew of events to honour the choreographer, including three programmes from his repertoire.

Mr Morris’s work runs the gamut of style and mood, but musicality is at its core. He insists that his dances be performed to live music; his stint at BAM this month even includes his conducting debut. Don't miss “Dido and Aeneas” (Programme B), which is Mr Morris at his best. Set to Henry Purcell’s baroque opera, the dramatic score seems to course through the dancers’ veins. Mr Morris’s musical ingenuity is a pleasure to watch: at one point two wicked characters mirror the singers’ coloratura by shimmying; at another the dancers pound the stage with their feet, the low rumble evoking impending doom. Amber Darragh is a regal Dido, imbuing each movement with both poise and vulnerability. Her final dance is heartbreaking.

For all his triumphs, Mr Morris’s love affair with music can at times be crippling. In “Four Saints in Three Acts”, set to the opera by Virgil Thomson and an irritating libretto by Gertrude Stein, dancers respond to every orchestral twinge in a way that seems slavish, and even boring. Thankfully this is an anomaly in an otherwise glittering body of work.

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House. 30 Lafayette Ave (between Ashland Place and St Felix St), Brooklyn. Tel: +1 (718) 636–4100. See BAM’s website for more information.

“Hedda Gabler”

Until March 26th 2006

One cannot pass a newsstand here without seeing a picture of Cate Blanchett splashed across a local glossy. New Yorkers are thrilled that the Australian actress has descended on the city—on Brooklyn, no less—in this gripping adaptation of Ibsen's classic. She will not disappoint the lucky few who have secured tickets; the month-long run is already sold out, but cancelled tickets are available for resale at the Harvey Theatre box office before each performance.

As Hedda, the most memorable desperate housewife of the stage, Ms Blanchett is a kinetic presence, with the elongated dimensions of a flame. The claustrophobia of her life in her new marriage to the tedious Jorgen Tesman (Anthony Weigh) has her seething through her days. “There is nowhere more isolating than the middle of someone else's life,” she complains, as she flirts, teases and manipulates her way to the play's tragic end. Andrew Upton, a playwright and Ms Blanchett's husband, has tinkered with the script slightly for the Sydney Theatre Company, and Robyn Nevin directs. Hugo Weaving is electrifying as Judge Brack, and Mr Weigh is convincingly irritating. Aden Young, as the dashing, young Ejlert Lovborg, could use just a touch more mojo to go with all that hair.

Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre, 651 Fulton St, Fort Greene. Tel: +1 (718) 636-4100. For more information, visit BAM's website.

On Site: New Architecture in Spain

Until May 1st 2006

Spain has become a hotbed of architectural excellence. Innovative structures are rising across the country, from the suburbs of Madrid to medieval Basque squares, the arid countryside and the centre of Barcelona. With photographs and scale models, this exhibit transports visitors across the Atlantic to 35 sites that are in design or under construction, and 18 recently completed projects.

Many of the buildings here have an enchanting, otherworldly effect. Enric Ruiz-Geli’s Hotel Habitat in Barcelona features a structure that seems to float in a sparkling net of 5,000 photovoltaic cells; the cells provide shade by day and light at night, changing colour depending on how much sunlight was absorbed. Other buildings are less dramatic, but hardly quotidian. The Edificio Mirador outside of Madrid, with a five-storey cube cut out of the centre, proves that even public housing can be playful. Many designs take their cues from nature: in Sevilla, Juergen Mayer’s mushroom-shaped canopies rise 90 feet above Roman ruins; and at the Barajas Airport in Madrid, Richard Rogers’s steel “trees” support an undulating bamboo roof. For all their forward-thinking, many architects seem to be looking back to the organic forms of that most famous Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi.

The exhibit's curators have selected projects that are impressively diverse, which makes for a somewhat disorganised exhibit. Still, visitors catch a glimpse of architects at their most inventive. And MoMA, a temple of architectural minimalism after a recent renovation, is a fitting spot for this impressive show.

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 St, between Fifth and Sixth Aves. Tel: +1 (212) 708-9400. Open: Weds-Mon, 10.30am-5.30pm (Fridays until 8pm). For more information, visit the museum’s website.

“The Pajama Game”

Until June 11th 2006

For pure, light-hearted entertainment, you could hardly find something more satisfying than “The Pajama Game” on Broadway. This is a fun revival, filled with infectious energy, classic music and real sexual chemistry between the leads. The story takes place in a pajama factory in the 1950s, where a love affair crosses labour lines. Against a back-drop of union meetings, salary complaints and a looming strike, a lusty love blooms between Babe Williams (Kelli O'Hara), the dishy head of the workers' grievance committee, and Sid Sorokin (Harry Connick Jr), the swoon-worthy new superintendent.

Mr Connick, a composer and singer, shines in his Broadway debut. He brings a jazzy, virile cool to the role of Sid, crooning such classics as “Hey There” and spicing up “There Once Was a Man”. Watching him jump and jive, with dimples like craters, it is hard to know why he waited so long to grace the stage. As for Ms O'Hara, who is blessed with a gorgeous voice and a pin-up's figure, she adds a bit of guts and grit to her angelic soprano. It is still a stretch to dress this classy dame in a blue collar, but she is wonderful to watch.

American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd St (Between Seventh & Eighth Aves). Tel: +1 (212) 719-1300. For more information, see the theatre's website.

Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul

February 19th-May 8th 2006

Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norway's most celebrated artist, is perhaps best known for “The Scream”, a chilling portrayal of human anguish. This retrospective—the first to be held in an American museum in almost three decades—includes a couple of lithographs of the iconic work. But it also sheds a more personal light on the painter, who ended his days in seclusion.

A survey of Munch's work is far from light. Quite a few dark and morbid themes run throughout the 87 paintings and 50 works on paper here, such as his preoccupation with illness and death (his mother and sister both died from tuberculosis), and his screwed up relationships with women. And he always viewed himself as an outsider, often on the cusp of madness. This exhibition traces his development from a fragile, young art student into a tortured symbolist.

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St (between 5th & 6th Aves). Tel: +1 (212) 708-9400. For more information, see the museum's website.

The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974-1984

Until April 1st 2006

These days downtown Manhattan can seem like a vast concrete playground, with swish boutiques and restaurants peppering a colony of young professionals in SoHo and the East Village. The area is so tourist-friendly that it is easy to forget it was ever different. But in the 1970s New York was bankrupt and gritty; when a blackout fell in 1977, latent unrest erupted in mass riots and pillaging. In this fiery time downtown Manhattan was a hive of creativity. Artists, musicians, filmmakers and writers eagerly addressed the questions of the day, exploring the middle ground between pop culture and high art. New York University pays homage to this thriving scene with an exhibit of works created from 1974-84, as the city fell apart and slowly sewed itself back up.

“The Downtown Show” is loosely organised according to theme, but the exhibit is nothing if not a hotch-potch. Painting, sculpture and photography mingle with video, journals and ephemera. Highlights include the first issue of Raw, a magazine that expanded the range of comic-book art, and Peter Hujar’s “Candy Darling on her deathbed”, a haunting photograph of a Warhol-factory drag queen channelling Greta Garbo as she lay dying of leukaemia. Some works, such as Robert Mapplethorpe’s erotic photographs and Keith Haring’s cartoon figures, have been absorbed into the artistic canon. Others are less familiar, and for good reason. But the collective mishmash evokes the raw vibrancy of a downtown that has all but disappeared.

Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 100 Washington Square East. Tel: + 1 (212) 998-6780. Open: Tues, Thurs-Fri, 11am-6pm; Wed, 11am-8pm; Sat, 11am-5pm. For more information visit the gallery's website.

“Rabbit Hole”

Until April 9th 2006

This new play by David Lindsay-Abaire is so realistic and so organic, that it has the effect of making viewers feel like voyeurs. At its centre is a young couple in a plush suburban home, as they grieve over the accidental death of their four-year-old son. The play begins eight months in, as Becca (Cynthia Nixon) and Howie (John Slattery) begin to pick up the pieces of their life and marriage.

What saves this play from the tear-jerking of a television drama is Mr Linsday-Abaire's honest and often comic dialogue, delivered with reserve from a remarkable cast. Ms Nixon, perhaps best known for her stint on “Sex and the City”, is wonderful to watch here. The ease with which she inhabits Becca, a strong and intelligent woman, lets her character's quirks fall believably into place. “Rabbit Hole” may not raise any big questions, but it does capture the mysterious power of family—those we adore but can't choose. Ultimately, it is a rare kind of love story, one that captures not its first blossom, but how people sustain the bloom in harsh weather.

Biltmore Theatre, 261 West 47th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave). Tel: +1 (212) 239-6200. For more information, see the show's website. Buy tickets through Telecharge's website.

“Bridge & Tunnel”

Until July 9th 2006

In 1909 Israel Zangwill, a playwright, coined the term “melting pot” to describe the jumbled community of immigrants who come to New York in search of opportunity. The many exotic ingredients of such a stew can be appraised in “Bridge & Tunnel”. Sarah Jones's critically acclaimed one-woman show, in which she inhabits countless characters from all over the city, has come to Broadway for a limited run.

The conceit of the play is a multi-cultural poetry reading hosted by Mohammed Ali, a Pakistani-American poet and accountant. The many guests he calls up include an elderly eastern-European Jewish woman; a strident young Vietnamese-American man; an insouciant African-American rapper; and a middle-aged Chinese-American woman grappling with her daughter's lesbianism. Ms Jones, a poet and playwright, has astounding range: with minimal props and a simple stage, she morphs from one character to the next, traversing boundaries of age, sex and nationality with jaw-dropping precision and grace. But the show is more than just a spotlight on Ms Jones's acting skills; it is a moving tribute to the challenges of crossing borders in order to move forward.

Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave). Tel: +1 (212) 239-6200. Buy tickets through Telecharge's website. See Sarah Jones's official website.

Robert Rauschenberg: Combines

Until April 2nd 2006

Paint-splattered comic strips, postcards, athletic socks, newspaper headlines and taxidermised animals are all the stuff of great art. Or so argues Robert Rauschenberg, who blurred the line between high art and everyday detritus in his “combines”, the term he used to describe his collages. This winter, Pop Art's founding father is the subject of an extensive tribute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit’s grand galleries house 67 dynamic combines, with never before seen works among more famous ones, such as “Monogram” and “Canyon”.

Created between 1954 and 1964, these combines show Mr Rauschenberg at his most inventive. Defying the postwar tenet that an artist should strive toward visual purity, they are a delirious mess of painting and sculpture, jutting playfully beyond rectangular frames and into the space of the viewer. Each combine challenges the viewer to string an interpretation from one visual reference to the next; no two people will read a combine in the same way. For all his innovation, Mr Rauschenberg, now 80 years old, also tipped his hat to the grand masters. “Collection”, made in 1954, includes a postcard of the 18th-century masterpiece “Las Meninas”, in which Velasquez painted a mirror to comment on the role of viewer. Indeed, this collage features a mirror, to remind the viewer of his active task in interpreting the combine and elevating it to a work of art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave (at 82nd St). Tel: +1 (212) 535-7710. Open: Sun, Tues-Thurs, 9.30am-5.30pm; Fri-Sat, 9.30am-9pm. Visit the museum’s website for further information.

“Abigail's Party”

Until April 8th 2006

An intoxicating mixture of darkness and light, Mike Leigh's “Abigail's Party” gets fine treatment in this production at the Acorn Theatre. Jennifer Jason Leigh is wonderfully acidic as Beverly, the hostess of a small party in her 1977 suburban London home. She twitches and sways around her groovy pad, drinking, smoking and tossing off barbs that can feel both dimly oblivious and cunningly searing.

The evening is a slow descent into something grim, which pulls down her hen-pecked husband and a few invited neighbours—a naive young couple and an older, more-sombre woman. But even the messiest moments of this gathering offer quite a bit to twitter about. Mr Leigh has a fine ear for the banalities of cocktail chatter, but this play is spared from complete misanthropy by a fine cast. The nugget of pathos in each character is tracked down with the help of smart direction from Scott Elliott. This is the first time this play is being produced in New York.

Acorn Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St. Tel: +1 (212) 279-4200. For more information, see the theatre's website.

“Darwin” at the American Museum of Natural History

Until August 20th 2006

Charles Darwin expected scepticism for his theory of evolution. But one can assume, nearly 150 years on, that he would have been surprised to discover how controversial his theory still is (at least in America). This well-timed show is the most comprehensive ever mounted on the man and his theory. Covering over 6,000 sq ft, with plenty of manuscripts, letters, artefacts, specimens and a few live animals (such as Galapagos tortoises and an iguana), it traces the logic of Darwin's understanding of the origin of life. This is a very impressive exhibit, well organised and with plenty to read. It makes for a good excuse to visit this remarkable museum. The only caveat is the show's galling price-tag: $21 for adults. Alas, “Darwin”—a $3m show, three years in the making—failed to find a corporate sponsor, owing to the continuing row over the teaching of evolution in schools.

American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West (at 79th St). Tel: +1 (212) 769-5100. Open: daily, 10am—5.45pm. Visit the museum’s website.

Economist.com Cities Guide: Washington, DC Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Slugging it out

The drawn-out effort to give the Washington Nationals baseball team a permanent home got a boost in March, when officials agreed to a lease for the team's new stadium. District leaders and executives at Major League Baseball (MLB), which owns the Nationals, had been squabbling over the stadium for more than a year. At issue is the cost of the park and how it will be financed. The District's city council finally approved a lease agreement in February. MLB first bristled at a new provision capping the city's construction costs at $611m, but eventually signed the lease on March 5th. The city council is now reviewing a few stipulations from MLB about the financing of cost over-runs. When the lease is finalised, MLB will be able to select a new owner for the team.

While the team may have finally found a home, they may soon be without a name. In February the US Patent and Trademark Office granted Bygone Sports the right to trademark the name “Washington Nationals”, despite stiff protest from MLB. Bygone wants to use the “Washington Nationals” name to market a line of nostalgic sportswear. MLB and Bygone had reportedly reached a tentative agreement before the team moved to Washington, but the deal fell apart before it could be signed. The two sides will continue to squabble in court, but without rights to the name, MLB may have to re-christen the team.

Welcome to the neighbourhood

The National Mall, already home to countless museums, memorials and government buildings, will soon break ground for yet another tourist destination. The Smithsonian Institution announced in late January its plans to build the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall less than 1,000 feet from the Washington Monument. Museum supporters hope that the project will be completed by 2016.

Proposals for the museum first surfaced in the 1930s, but were stymied as recently as the 1990s in a crusade headed by Jesse Helms, a former Republican senator known for his racial prejudice. It was not until 2003 that Congress finally approved plans for it. January's selection of a site is a milestone in the museum's progress, but there is much to be done. The scheme must still be approved by city commissions, and Lonnie Bunch, the museum’s director, has to choose an architect, raise money for construction and assemble the museum’s collection. The museum is estimated to cost between $300m and $500m, split between the federal government and private donors.

The site on the Mall was one of four possible locations. Critics complain that the museum will clutter the area, but supporters argued that placing it elsewhere would be an affront to African Americans.

On track

The District of Columbia and surrounding governments may establish dedicated sources of revenue for the Metro system—and not a moment too soon. The Metro is funded by rider fares and a combination of state, District and federal funds, which are vulnerable to annual budget debates. Unreliable funding has led to the system’s disrepair. Last year Thomas Davis, a Republican congressman from Virginia, proposed a bill that would grant the transport system $1.5 billion in federal aid if local governments establish permanent revenue sources for the Metro. The region’s politicians took notice: now state legislatures in Virginia and Maryland are trying to determine permanent funding sources for the system, and the District’s city council passed a bill in December that would dedicate a portion of the city’s sales tax to the transit agency, funding it up to $50m by 2009.

Though the Metro often impresses visitors with its sleek stations and clean trains, the system is in dire need of a fix-up. Not only are trains perpetually overcrowded, but they often fail to stop at station platforms. Trains overran stations 688 times in 2005, a record high and more than twice the 1996 figure.

Smoked out

At the end of January Anthony Williams, Washington’s mayor, declined to veto the District’s smoking ban, thus moving it a step closer to final enactment. The two-stage ban, passed by the city council in early January, would forbid smoking in restaurants immediately and then in bars, nightclubs and restaurant bars in 2007. Now the legislation moves to Congress, which has 30 legislative days to review the bill. If these pass without action, the ban will automatically become law.

District smokers who feel unwelcome in their hometown can feed their habit outside city limits. On February 23rd a Maryland House committee killed a proposed ban, and on the same day a parallel bill was quashed in a Virginia House subcommittee—hardly surprising given that Virginia is the third-largest tobacco producer in America.

Slow going

Commuters' grumblings were confirmed in February, when a new study found that Washington-area traffic has become even more gnarled. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) analysed more than 80,000 aerial photographs for the report, which is released every three years. The first hour of the evening rush, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, saw the greatest increase in lane-miles of congestion from 2002 to 2005, up 64%. Two stretches of road tied for the dubious title of worst traffic choke-point: the inner loop of the beltway that stretches from I-270 to Connecticut Ave, from 4pm to 4.30pm each afternoon, and I-395 just as it approaches the District, from 5pm to 6pm, when commuters inch forward at an average of 5mph.

To alleviate congestion, local governments should continue to promote carpooling and invest in transport projects, said Ron Kirby, the transport director of COG. Streamlined highway ramps, express toll lines and new lanes for high-occupancy vehicles would help unclog the area’s bottlenecks.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Artists of Edo 1800-1850

Until May 29th 2006

In early-17th-century Japan, the Tokugawa shoguns made Edo (modern-day Tokyo) their administrative capital. While the emperor and nobles remained in Kyoto, the shogun sponsored artists in Edo, helping the city develop its own artistic style.

This exhibition displays some 30 paintings, prints and other works that reflect the Edo aesthetic of the 19th century. The works include a number of hanging scrolls and other objects, such as a large sashimi dish that doubles as a game board, and tea sets. The paintings concentrate on familiar images: towering landscapes, fish, scenes from stories and, of course, fragile courtesan beauties. While the subjects and styles vary, the work is uniformly impressive, with exquisite detailing.

Freer Gallery of Art, Jefferson Drive at 12th St, SW. Tel: +1 (202) 633-4880. Open: 10am-5.30pm. Entry: free. For more information, visit the museum’s website.

More from the Washington, DC cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Paris Briefing - March 2006

News this month

Torture in the suburbs

France has been reeling from the news of the kidnap, torture and murder of a 23-year-old Jewish man. Ilan Halimi was discovered on February 13th—three weeks after his disappearance—near a railway track outside Paris, naked, gagged and handcuffed, with signs of torture and burn marks over 80% of his body. He died on the way to hospital. The crimes appear to have been motivated by anti-Semitism, but Halimi’s family alleges that the police and the government took too long to admit this, in order to avoid upsetting French Muslims.

The suspected gang leader is a Frenchman, Youssouf Fofana, who was arrested in the Côte d’Ivoire on February 22nd, following a tip-off. He is believed to have confessed to taking part in the crimes and was extradited on March 4th. Police say the gang was behind at least six other attempted kidnappings in and around Paris. After Halimi's disappearance on January 21st, his family began receiving threats and demands for a ransom that began at €450,000 ($537,000) and decreased to under €100,000. Tens of thousands of marchers gathered in Paris and other French cities on the 26th to protest against the killing. In the same suburb where Halimi was killed, Jewish leaders say there were three anti-Semitic attacks over the weekend of March 3rd. Extra police officers have been hired to monitor synagogues in the area.

Making light of the prophet

On February 1st France-Soir, a daily newspaper, became one of the first journals to reprint a now-infamous set of Danish-made cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The Egyptian-French owner of France-Soir, Raymond Lakah, sacked the editor, Jacques Lefranc, but not before the newspaper had been banned in Morocco and Tunisia. Meanwhile, Le Monde published several other cartoons, as well as an original drawing by its famous cartoonist, Plantu, showing the face of Muhammad by using the phrase “I must not depict the prophet”. Libération, the popular centre-left paper, showed the cartoons in a photo, while Charlie Hébdo, a satirical weekly, ran all 12 of the drawings after a judge threw out a last-minute legal bid to halt their release.

The Parisian press was not alone in confronting the controversy, but the issue is particularly sensitive here. France has Europe’s largest Muslim population, estimated at 5m-6m, many of them in the Paris region. The MRAP, an anti-racism group, has already filed suit against France-Soir over the publication of the images. Meanwhile the Council of French Muslims, an umbrella organisation, said it would take legal action against all French papers which published the cartoons.

A popular choice

Francoise de Panafieu will be the Union for a Popular Movement's candidate in Paris's mayoral election in 2008. Ms Panafieu won about 40% of a leadership poll held on February 25th, with the second-placed challenger, Claude Goasguen, securing just over 23%. The two candidates were expected to contest a second, run-off vote. But Mr Goasguen dropped out of the race on February 28th, clearing the way for Ms Panafieu to secure the nomination.

Ms Panafieu is not short of experience: she was deputy to both Jean Tiberi and Jacques Chirac when each was Paris's mayor, and was tourism minister under prime minister Alain Juppe. She is also popular among women, no less so for boasting to Le Monde that her sex was an advantage, since “women are less worn down, and men have proved disappointing”.

Jailhouse shock

The Council of Europe, a human-rights watchdog, has delivered a damning report on France’s prisons, calling them “catastrophic”. One of the most shocking places visited by Alvaro Gil-Robles, the council’s human-rights commissioner, was in the belly of the historic Palais de Justice—a group of courts on Paris's Ile de la Cité, which also houses an underground detention centre for migrants threatened with expulsion. “It is of the utmost urgency to shut this place, which is the very embodiment of a serious human rights violation,” he wrote, describing men packed into rooms with only a tiny, dirty courtyard and television to occupy them. Meanwhile, conditions at Paris’s Prison de la Santé, like that of the Baumettes in Marseilles, nearly exceed “the limits of human dignity”.

Mr Gil-Robles attributed many of the problems to overcrowding, a result of the trend towards longer sentences and limited funding for prison construction and renovation. According to statistics released on February 10th, French prisons are running at 116% of their capacity. France’s justice minister, Pascal Clement, criticised the council’s report as “unfair”, saying unprecedented efforts were being made to modernise jails and create over 13,000 new places. Nicolas Sarkozy, the powerful interior minister, promised the Palais de Justice centre would be shut in June.

Mayoral weakness

Parisians have surprised pollsters with their long-standing, almost gleeful support for Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor. But a survey conducted last month showed his popularity rating dropping to 60%, down from 78% three years earlier. A study by the CSA Institute for Le Parisien and Le Nouvel Observateur indicates a backlash against the changes to the road system undertaken by Mr Delanoë’s administration: 69% of respondents were unhappy with traffic and 66% with parking. The only issues to create more discontent are the cost of housing and the state of council housing. “For the first time since 2001, people are saying Bertrand Delanoë can be beaten in Paris!” enthused Philippe Goujon, the city's chief of the rival UMP party. But Parisians are still happy with the mayor's environmental record, with 68% approving of his performance on public transport.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Dora Maar

Until May 22nd 2006

Dora Maar was Pablo Picasso’s companion and muse from 1935 to 1945. In this exhibit, Maar's role is elevated to that of a collaborator during one of the Spanish master’s most fertile periods. A photographer associated with the Surrealist movement, Maar—whose real name was Henriette Markovitch—often documented Picasso at work. This show features her images of the painter, some displayed here for the first time, including an arresting series on the making of “Guernica”, Picasso’s compelling response to the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, among the abundance of works on view—nearly 250 covering the years 1936 to 1945—it is the paintings chronicling tragedy, including “The Charnel House” in 1945, and the portraits of Maar as “The Crying Woman”, that hold the attention.

Musée Picasso, Hôtel Salé, 5, rue de Thorigny, 3rd arrondissement, Métro: Saint Paul, Saint-Sébastien Froissart, Chemin Vert. Tel: +33 (0)1 42 71 25 21. Open: Wed-Mon 9.30am-5.30pm. For more information see the museum’s website.

More from the Paris cultural calendar